Gay romance fiction

Character Building

craft workshops for genre authors

  • Subtopics: (Character workshops can focus on...)
    • Big Bad: building memorable villains
    • Power Couples: matches & catches that make relationships pop
    • Dynamic Duo: perfecting protagonist/antagonist combos
    • Moving Characters: casting and drafting to amp emotional impact
    • Dark Heart: backstory, depth, and motivation without info dumps
    • Star Turns: building unforgettable leads to drive your story
    • Happier Endings: unique character goals to boost conflict and stakes
    • Verbal Impact: characterization that attracts fans and plots itself
    • Character Lab: hands-on exercises to improve your cast at any stage
  • Format: all sessions available in lengths from one to six hours.
  • Technical requirements: projector/screen.

 

General Class Blurb:

CHARACTER BUILDING with Damon Suede

Bestsellers start with fascinating people. In this session we’ll take your fictional folks to the next level with a simple, powerful technique that will strengthen your plots, your hooks, and your voice. Go beyond looks, persona, and boilerplate traits so you can build the perfect cast to dazzle your readers.

Compelling characters boost your writing process and anchor your career at any stage. Whether you like to wing it or bring it, you’ll leave this workshop with a new set of practical, hands-on tools to populate your pages and lay the foundations of unforgettable fiction.

Class Description:

Character Building is a practical workshop which takes characterization beyond boilerplate traits and faux interviews to get at what makes folks unforgettable on the page. During this session we’ll explore:

  • a characterization strategy that simplifies plotting, pitching, and revision…as well as preventing duds and derailments.

  • the secrets of compelling protagonists and unforgettable character arcs

  • the power of casting when developing story, hook, structure, and emotional impact.

  • character theories, familiar and freaky, that present fresh tools and inspiring options for working writers.

Each attendee — from raw newbies to perennial bestsellers, plotters and pantsers — will leave with a fresh approach to characterization, a fresh toolkit and exercises, and further resources to deepen and expand the craft of dreaming up characters.

Takeaways:

  • a new, intuitive characterization technique that simplifies plotting, drafting, revision, pitches, and marketing.

  • a protagonist toolkit to amplify engagement and increase narrative tension.

  • methods that deepen emotional impact and reader engagement.

  • a unique character-based approach to project planning that prevents duds and derailments at any stage of the creative process.

Presentations:

"No one deserves to be punished for loving with an open heart." (Hot Head - D. Suede)

Recommended reading:

CRAFT

PERSONALITY MODELS

LITERARY TRADITIONS

ESOTERIC MODELS

PERFORMANCE

"For an endless moment, Runt imagined the crooked corporation had folded and they’d been forgotten, laughing and living together under these perfect suns, waiting for wives that would never come, happily hunting fresh meat at the sharp edge of the galaxy." (Grown Men - D. Suede)

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Web Links:

"For an endless moment, Runt imagined the crooked corporation had folded and they’d been forgotten, laughing and living together under these perfect suns, waiting for wives that would never come, happily hunting fresh meat at the sharp edge of the galaxy." (Grown Men - D. Suede)

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If you'd like to book Damon to come present a workshop for your group or chapter, just give a holler.